Blue Eyes
by Cyberwolf
Summary: The aftermath of battle leaves some people confused, some people comatose, and some just all warm and fuzzy. [NaruSaku] [NejiTen]
1. uno

Set after the Never-ending Battle (AKA Team 7, Chiyo, and Team Gai vs. Sasori, Deidara, and Team Gai Black Mode). I haven't been keeping up with the manga so well, so there are probably loads of inconsistencies. Sorry. Hope you still enjoy.

* * *

_who'd have thought that you'd dream  
of a single tragic scene…_

_-_Blue Eyes, Cary Brothers

* * *

They stumbled into the clearing at the same time, not by design but by chance. Tenten and Neji came stumbling in from the northwest, Lee from the southwest and Gai flew in from the eastern side, all of them brought up short by the image of a furious, bloodied Sakura standing defensively over the slumped form of Chiyo, kunai out and so ready for battle that the air around her was almost visibly charged with chakra. 

She blinked, and something in her eyes retreated. And suddenly she was hurrying to them, babbling with concern and fear and questions. In a very short time she had them all lying down on the mossy forest floor. There was some sort of order to their arrangement, they realized, when she began to go from one to another in sequence, healing the most severe wounds, moving on, coming back to take care of the remainder.

She kept up a running stream of chatter the whole time she worked, interspersing questions about Team Gai's battles with their jutsu-created clones with a blow-by-blow accounting of her and Chiyo's battle with Sasori of the Red Sands – whose bruised, broken and surprisingly scrawny body lay in the shadows of the cave, secured (though it was likely that he was dead) by barrier ofudas.

Lee and Gai began to sob their apologies about not making it to help with the battle with the Akatsuki. Sakura comforted them…at least until their wailing began to be about how they could possibly have let "a fragile delicate little flower like our Sakura-chan" (Gai having decided that his eternal rival's students were as good as his, except for the one obvious exception of course, and Lee being…Lee) "face such an awesome opponent all on her own!" At that point Sakura began tying their bandages just a little tighter, and wondering aloud if she should try out that new anesthetic jutsu to help facilitate the healing of the Beautiful Green Beasts of Konoha.

Tenten smirked in sympathetic feeling at her fellow kunoichi's actions, from where she was helping Neji reopen his tenketsus. The young Hyuuga had – much to his evident disgruntlement – managed to be on the receiving end of one of his own 256-strike Hakkeshou Hydra-Style attacks. He had won – "of course," he scoffed when Tenten asked him about his fight – but at the cost of having all his tenketsus closed. After Sakura managed to reopen the chakra openings in his hands, he had begun to painstakingly restore his chakra system, but he couldn't reach the ones on his back…

But Tenten's smirk slid off quickly as she watched the younger girl work. There was an almost hysterical edge to her never-ending chatter, and even Lee could tell that she was desperately trying to distract herself from something with her ministrations. She treated Lee and Gai's chauvinism with an annoyance uncharacteristic of her (when it did not involve Naruto or Kakashi, who had managed to knock down her reservations about bodily harm with their…personalities, she was usually very polite). Her green eyes glittered strangely in her too-taut face, and there was an air about her of someone who was about to chew through her own fingers in the mind-numbing agony of waiting, waiting, _waiting…_

And then Sakura was bolting to her feet, the green glow of healing chakra fading away from where she'd been helping set Lee's broken leg. Her face had gone absolutely bone-white, and it served to make her eyes, round and wide with something beyond sorrow and something more desperate than disbelief, seem even brighter.

Beneath Tenten's hands, Neji had gone still. Then he was shaking his head, his Byakugan activated, and murmuring "No," in a soft, defeated voice. Almost shaking with apprehension, not wanting to see what Neji and Sakura saw, Tenten slowly turned her head.

Kakashi was standing at the edge of the clearing. The infamous jounin was in worse shape than Tenten had ever seen him; slouching not in affectation but in genuine pain, blood tracing dark, wet trails over his face and staining his mask. His hitai-ate was, for once, straight and level on his brow, leaving the infamous Sharingan eye to blaze red and raw against a face almost as white as Sakura's.

And in his arms he cradled a bundle of bloody, ripped cloth. The blood liberally spattered all over it was almost – but not quite – enough to hide the fact that once it had been a bright, vibrant orange.

"Oh god," Tenten whispered to herself, her voice drowned out by Sakura's wavering, panic-shrill voice calling to her jounin-sensei.

"Ka…Kakashi-sensei…where is he?" Her voice rose, cracking and blurring with oncoming tears. "Where is he, Kakashi-sensei? _Where's Naruto?" _

**

* * *

**

**TBC**

And of course Naruto's going to be in the next part!

Soundtrack while writing:  
_Ending Theme_ (FFX)  
_Fields of Gold_ (Sting)  
_Fish Silent Cruise_ (GitS)  
_An Old Irish Song _(Suikoden II)  
And of course _Blue Eyes_ (Cary Brothers)


	2. dos

Now, I had two ideas for where '**Blue Eyes'** could go. The first involved a lot of drama, exploration of the themes of existence, the afterlife, and eternity, and would span several chapters.

The one I'm going with is more comedy. Maybe one day I'll go back and do the more serious version, but for now I think I just want to have fun. (And beat on Kakashi.) XP

* * *

"_Where's Naruto?"_

Kakashi looked up wearily at Sakura, swaying a bit on his feet before his mismatched eyes could focus on his female student. "Oh, him?" he slurred, his voice sounding a little punch-drunk.

If she hadn't been so consumed with fear for her missing blond teammate, Sakura would have bristled in indignation. _How_ could that stupid pervert say it so casually, so off-handedly? '_Oh him?'_ Just like that? He'd tossed the words off like they didn't matter, like her entire world wasn't about to spin based on what he was about to say…when _he_ could very well be…

"He's right behind me," Kakashi continued, dropping the rags that had once been Naruto's clothes at his feet. His hands now free, he reached up to tug his hitai-ate back into its usual rakish tilt over his Sharingan eye. The motion seemed to adjust something back to normalcy inside him, as he let out a heavy breath and he was suddenly more like the lazy, imperturbable man she had always known.

Sakura's mind, racing at hyperspeed circles for so long, took every word and every action Kakashi had just said and done and analyzed it frantically, wringing every possible explanation from them.

'_He's so casual…even he couldn't possibly be that blasé if something had gone…wrong…'_

'_But all that blood…and he's so hurt…Kakashi **never** gets hurt…'_

'_Why was he holding Naruto's clothes? Whose blood is that?'_

'**_Where is Naruto?'_**

Behind her, Neji's headshaking had become a puzzled cock of his head to one side. Was the silver-haired man lying to Sakura to spare her? His still-activated Byakugan could see the perimeter of the clearing for several yards, and there was no human-shaped chakra system behind the jounin – nothing but the usual forest wildlife…

And then something moved from the deepening shadows of the trees, and Lee was leaping to his feet – toppling over as he put weight on his half-healed leg – and Neji was staring and Tenten was reaching for kunai.

Only Sakura, her eyes widening in quick comprehension as her adrenaline-soaked brain fed her conclusions, took a step forward towards the giant golden fox that had emerged into the clearing.

"N…Naruto?"

**

* * *

**

**TBC**

Right, humor added to the genre listing. Short and pointless – quite so – but I just wanted to get this part out of the way. I can begin having some fun next part. Whee! XD

Randomly: Episode 149? WTF? I have never seen an episode so rife for riffing. So much OOC! So much forced humor! Not to say I didn't enjoy it. I like how they drew Naruto here, even if the others occasionally look like bug-eyed PPG rejects. And wo0t! Shino!

As I write this, my ickle youngest brother is playing Narultimate Hero2 all on his own. (sniffles) I'm so proud of him! He's even playing as Naruto, instead of playing as Sasuke or Neji as our other brother (and unfortunate family champion at all games) always does!


	3. tres

Much love to all the nice reviewers who decided this series was worth checking out. I don't mind answering questions, and I love long reviews, so please. PLEASE. Leave a comment?

* * *

**_Cause, blue eyes, you are all that I need  
'Cause, blue eyes, you're the sweet to my mean_  
**-Blue Eyes, Cary Brothers

* * *

His entire world was pain. Pain and /_need/_ . 

The pain made up most of it: the hundreds of tiny scratches rent into his hide, bleeding him like the pinpricks of a swarm of bees; the deep, unceasing ache of his bones and the audible grind of his joints every time he moved; even the throbbing beat of his heart, echoed in his pulsing headache, hurt him. He moved slowly and carefully, as if the leaf-covered ground was in fact covered by broken glass and tripwires; as much because each step sent lances of fire up and down his limbs as to protect the burden he bore on his back. He dripped blood as he moved, and his ears, pricked in alert, could hear the steady – steadier than his own footsteps - impacts of red droplets on the forest-floor.

_/bloodbloodbloodredNO/_

He staggered, and nearly fell, legs buckling underneath him; but he managed to keep his feet, leaning against a smooth-barked tree for a moment to let the forest stop spinning around him. The limp body he carried on his back – a weight he felt only too well, but one he would not trust to anyone else until he was sure – almost slid off. He shifted his shoulders, growling softly; the body settled back into a carrying position.

The pain was everywhere; but the /_need/_ was what drove him, under and above and beyond all the pain. His need to bring the one on his back /_brother?brotherfriendonelikeme/_ safe again; his need to finish this, this…this journey, this battle, that wouldn't be ended until…until…

His mind was muzzy. But he knew he had to keep walking. It wasn't so much a matter of getting from one place to another as to keep setting his feet down. He kept an unsteady metronome of steps, weaving on his feet as a wave of dizziness set in.

His eyesight was blurred and terrible, leached of any detail. Blood had dried caked over his right eye, gluing it partially shut. He was partially aware of a tall, slow-moving figure ahead of him, one that smelled of sweat and steel and the copper tang of blood; periodically the figure would stop and wait for him. He…he was following the man /_silverhair/one-eye/_ , more by sound and scent than by sight. _/One-eye/_ was going to where they needed…/_needed/_…

He /_needed/_ to return to /_her/_ .

* * *

A sudden onslaught of light and scent and noise startled him, and he almost sat on his haunches from the shock. Smoke, strong herbs, cloth and metals and a thousand other smells that the forest did not produce…the babble of voices, shrill and loud after the slow stalk through the woods. The shadows of the trees ended, and his blurred but sensitive eyesight winced away from the sunset light. He backed slightly, trying to decide if this was safety or more /_danger/_ .

But /_One-eye/_ was moving forward, towards the new noises. He hesitated, took a deep breath, and then padded softly after the taller figure, feeling more confident as the voices and scents began to fit themselves into a pattern that he knew.

And then /_she/_ was there, all sweet-smelling herbs and cherry-blossoms and fresh-cut grass, he was drowning in her scent, and he was falling into her voice calling his name.

And the /_need/_ uncoiled from within him, melting into something soft and warm and pure, and he finally, finally let himself fall into the sweet darkness.

* * *

**TBC**

Next chapter: Giant squirrels, Sakura's everlasting shame, and comatose people all around. Oh, and Neji whimpers.

* * *

**AN**  
Augh stupid eff-eff dot net formatting, it keeps eating my brackets! Now I have to waste time redoing it, and in between slashes that look stupid...Last bit of fic I'll write until I'm back in Canada. Since, in the stress of moving back and dealing with fussy parents and bank accounts, I will repeatedly burst into tears, this is one of the last few pleasures I foresee myself having for a while. Hope you guys like it. XD

So the lyrics up there ought to have been altered to 'Green Eyes', to fit the fic. Eh. (shrugs)

**Soundtrack**  
_Blue Eyes_ (Cary Brothers)  
_Suteki da Ne_ (FFX)  
_Ignited Piano Version_ (SEED Destiny)  
_Akatsuki no Kuruma acoustic_ (SEED)


	4. quatro

_i just want to be the one  
that's true…_

-Blue Eyes, Cary Brothers

* * *

Later Sakura would wonder about how she had called out his name. Her voice had sounded without her knowledge, surprising her almost as much as it had everyone else. For a sliver of a moment, she had actually wondered who had been the source of that astonishing cry, until with a jolt her mind caught up to the present.

The name she had cried out unconsciously had been like a catalyst, sparking off a cascade of realizations that ended in that one incredible conclusion. Understanding had come _later_, puzzle pieces falling into place _after_ she had known what the complete picture was going to look like. It was only _after_ she'd assigned the name to the unknown entity emerging from the shadows that she'd realized how very _obvious_ her conclusion had been – matching the sun-gold fur, the fox-shape and of course those shockingly blue eyes to everything that Naruto was.

At the sound of her voice, the great golden head swung round to fix on her, eyes regarding her with a depth of eager happiness that humbled her. With a faint gasp, Sakura tore her eyes away from the blue familiarities set into a strange face, her gaze moving slightly upwards to fix on the red-headed body slumped – she only now noticed – on top of the fox's back.

Gaara.

Sakura took a step forward, the movement almost as involuntarily as her earlier cry had been.

As if that had been a signal, the fox – Naruto, _Naruto, _she chanted to herself – quietly toppled over, spilling his unconscious burden onto the ground beside him. Sakura, her foot not yet down from that first step, began to run. There was a muffled thump, and then a burst of exclamation from Gai, as his rival also chose this moment – in perfect sync with his young student – to faint.

Sakura, intent on the two fallen figures in front of her, did not even turn her head. She threw herself on her knees beside the golden fox, hands instinctually moving to the throat to search for a pulse. Sakura was a medic-nin, not a veterinarian, but she'd trained enough on other forms of living creatures to have a working knowledge on how to treat a…giant demon fox?

She shunted that thought away, burying it beneath the long checklists of things to check for and examine and fix. Her fingers buried themselves underneath the thick ruff of fur, snowy-white at the throat, searching for the pulse. Her stomach settled from its wild spinning when a steady, although worryingly quick, heartbeat vibrated underneath her fingertips. She let out a long breath that made her shoulders shake a little; it felt like the first time she'd done so since Kakashi had arrived.

She cast medic-trained eyes up and down his body, cataloguing the list of hurts that her sharp green eyes could find while her hands did the same, lightly probing for broken bones, untoward protrusions or indentions, and any sudden up-welling of blood.

The fur underneath her hands felt almost sinfully _opulent_, sliding in between her fingers like water, smooth and silky and as soft as a dream – except, of course, where it was matted down with blood. Irrelevantly, her mind jumped back to the mop of spiky gold-blond hair she had often felt in between her hands – mostly because of slaps applied upside the skull underneath, or seizing the golden strands in her fist for a good hair-pulling. Despite its rough, scruffy appearance, she'd always felt Naruto's hair was oddly well-conditioned for a boy's hair, enough that she had considered asking him what he used. Now she realized that it had felt like…felt like _fur._

The realization was helped by the fact that the fur was the same fair color as Naruto's hair, as golden as flames, accented snowy-white along the throat and belly, tail-tip and paws, as well as three sharply-delineated slashes of white on each side of his muzzle. Sakura was strongly reminded of Naruto's facial markings in negative as she noticed them, lifting her hand to trace her fingers along one of the markings.

A deep-blue eye – surely they hadn't been so intense in color before? – slowly slid open as she touched his face, focusing on her. Sakura smiled at him, trying for comforting, the competent-medic way she smiled at patients in the Konoha hospital, but feared that she only came across as teary. Naruto made a noise that sounded like a plaintive whine. Sakura closed her eyes and tried to collect herself, her breath catching on something suspiciously like a sob when Naruto nuzzled into her hand.

And then she realized that he wasn't nuzzling into her hand; he was trying to direct her attention to the _other_ collapsed demon-vessel nearby. He pushed at her hand with his nose, the only motion he could convince his aching body to perform, and whined again.

Reluctantly, Sakura drew away from him.

* * *

Since their only (conscious) medic-trained ninja was busy with the two jinchuuriki, it fell to Team Gai to tend to a totally drained Kakashi. Gai and Neji dragged Kakashi to the shade of a tall oak tree – not so much for the shade as to get the man propped up against the trunk. Surprisingly, the one with the most medical experience – probably from all the time he spent in the hospital, Neji had once sniped (upset at being upstaged) – was Lee, and he began to set the older man's broken bones, ignoring his own hurt leg – the one Sakura hadn't had time to heal – in the process. At the same time, Tenten, as the one with the most dexterous hands, took care of sewing the most gaping wounds shut, in order to limit the blood-loss.

In the meantime, Gai gazed with worried, uncharacteristically solemn eyes at the giant fox sprawled a short distance away, ignoring his team's questioning looks, the inquiries held just behind their teeth, ready to be asked as soon as Gai let them.

He didn't let them. Not yet.

How _could _he explain that their friend may have just turned into a demon?

* * *

Neji's whimpering has been moved to the next chapter.

Tenten: (grins evilly)

Neji: (glaring at Episode 152) Haven't I been tortured enough already?

Tenten and Naruto: (in chorus) No.

The giant squirrel has declined to make an appearance, despite Lee's pleading, due to its wariness about the giant fox.

**Soundtrack**  
_Blue Eyes_ by the Cary Brothers  
_This Side_ by Nickel Creek  
_Leave No Man Behind_ from the Black Hawk Down OST

Now I'm off to watch Episode 152, which my computer has just finished downloading. Hopefully it'll give me an idea how to handle Gai's characterization in the next chapter.

**Mommy Rogers**: thanks for the much-needed heads-up. And the Canucks comment? More appropriate than ever, cos I just got to go see a Canucks game live which converted me to a Nasden fan quite solidly. Well, as an international student, it's not _yet _home, but here's to hoping. XD

**FireDragonBL: **Agreed, Tenten needs more airtime. Here's to hoping she gets it in the anime! (WoOT for collapsible bo staffs!) Rest assured that I plan a fairly major part for her in this series. (rubs hands together evilly)

**Smiter**, my friend, we do think alike. _That _scene (with some additions) was one of the first planned in my head for this fic. (evil grin) It's not going to happen for a little while yet, because I have…_plans_…

NYAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.

Oh yes, and please note that I write for _fun._ This is a hobby. I do this when I want to forget things I'd like to. In short: I don't consider this a duty at all. SO I don't feel obligations to finish, or write fast, or put things in to please readers, _unless_ it pleases me to do so. It's awesome that so many cool people take the time to review and make it fun to write, so a big thanks for all the support.


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